~ Seasonal fragrance and flavour from my country kitchens in England and France....celebrating local seasonal produce with traditional feasts and festivals, culinary notes, reviews, recipes and musings from home and abroad....whilst preparing family food with flair ~

Popovers, Puddings and Chocolate!

Mixed Berry and Chocolate Popovers

Recipe

Mixed Berry and Chocolate Popovers

When is a Yorkshire pudding a dessert, when it is a Popover of course, although I remember having Yorkshire pudding served with jam, honey and golden syrup for Sunday tea, so we also serve our national pudding as a sweet treat too. So what are popovers? Popovers are a well-loved American classic, made with a Yorkshire pudding type batter that are baked in a muffin tin/pan, although you can buy special “popover pans” in the States, that are straight sided rather than slightly angled; they are a usually hollow, light and very puffy, making them the perfect vehicle for adding fillings. Popovers are often served for breakfast, with fruit and syrups, as well as a dessert with whipped cream and as accompaniments to roast meats, just like our Yorkshire puddings. The name “popover” comes from the fact that the batter swells or “pops” over the top of the muffin tin while baking. Another name for them is Lapplander, which comes from the name of the nomadic reindeer herders in Lapland, although why they should be named after Laplanders is something I have not been able to find out.

Popover Pans and Popovers

But back to my recipe for today, a sweet recipe for an indulgent dessert, Mixed Berry and Chocolate Popovers. The recipe I have shared is an adapted recipe that I discovered in the Reader’s Digest Baking Bible cookbook, and id rather special as the popovers have some French “perles de prune” added in them for a chocolatey hit! My perles de prune were part of a “goodie bag” I brought back from a recent press trip to Sarlat, and are made with grapes that have been soaked in “La Vieille Prune”, a local liqueur, before being coated with dark chocolate. Malcolm and I love them and he was most perturbed when I decided to add a few to my popovers! It was a random idea and it worked like a dream – the popovers rose, just as they should do, and the boozy chocolate coated fruit sank to the bottom so you had an amazing molten mess of chocolate and fruit to enjoy whilst eating them.

These wee light and airy treats were enjoyed as a rather naughty dessert the other day and they were truly delectable – light and airy as they should be, with a fabulous hit of sweet fruits to cut through the richness of the chocolate coated raisins. Mini Yorkshire puddings they may be by any other name, they are easy to make and the four that we didn’t eat were popped into the freezer for future popover pleasure! For those of you who like me may be interested in more historical facts about the humble American popover, I have copied some facts below………that’s it for today however, I am about to pop off to prepare and cook Sunday lunch, and I will see you very soon with some more baking recipes, as well as some new 5:2 diet recipes. Karen

Jennifer’s Vintage Cutlery

Disclaimer: You might have notices the beautiful vintage cutlery in my photos; the lovely little fork, knife and two spoons were sent to me to use in my photos from Jennifer’s Vintage Cutlery, a wonderful small UK business run by Jennifer that specialises in on-line vintage luxury cutlery and tableware. With thanks to Jennifer for sending me these assorted pretty pieces, I will be using them frequently (in my images and food styling) I am sure. Karen

Popovers are an American classic, similar to our own Yorkshire Puddings, these delectable, light and airy little batter cakes make a delicious and easily prepared dessert. You can also make "savoury" popovers to accompany stews and soups, just omit the sugar in the basic batter. This recipe has been adapted from the Reader's Digest Baking Bible cookbook.

Ingredients

Popovers

butter or cake release spray

125g plain flour (1 cup all-purpose flour)

2 teaspoons caster sugar (superfine sugar)

2 eggs

250mls milk (1 cup)

80g chocolate coated raisins or chocolate chips (1/2 cup)

Icing sugar to sprinkle (confectioner's sugar)

Berry compote

Note

Popovers are an American classic, similar to our own Yorkshire Puddings, these delectable, light and airy little batter cakes make a delicious and easily prepared dessert. You can also make "savoury" popovers to accompany stews and soups, just omit the sugar in the basic batter. (This recipe has been adapted from the Reader's Digest Baking Bible cookbook)

Directions

Make the popovers: Sift the flour and sugar into a large bowl and make a well in the centre; break the eggs into the well and the milk, combine with a wooden spoon.

Step 3

Using a wire whisk, gradually work the the flour into the egg and milk mixture, as if you were making Yorkshire pudding or pancake batter, until the mixture is a smooth batter with the pouring consistency of single (pouring) cream. Pour the batter into a large jug with a lip, cover with a tea-towel and set to one side to "sit" for 30 minutes.

Step 4

When you are ready to bake the popovers, pour the batter into the 8 prepared cups in the muffin tray/pan, each cup should be two-thirds full and then divide the chocolate coated raisins or chocolate chips between the batter filled cups by dropping them into the middle of the batter.

Step 5

Bake in the centre of the oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the popovers are golden brown, are crisp around the edges and have puffed up.

Step 6

Whilst the popovers are baking, make the berry compote; place all of the fruit into a bowl and add the sugar, mix well and allow to macerate for the cooking time of the popovers.

Step 7

When the popvers are cooked, take them out of the oven and gently unmould them with a knife. Place two popovers per person on a plate and spoon over the berry compote before sprinkling some icing sugar (confectioner's sugar) over the top of the popovers.

Step 8

NB: The chocolate chips and fruit will have dropped to the bottom of the popovers, but this creates a molten chocolatey base of each popover, which is delicious!

The popover is an American version of Yorkshire pudding and similar batter puddings made in England since the 17th century, though it has evolved considerably.
The oldest known reference to popovers is in a letter of E. E. Stuart’s in 1850. The first cookbook to print a recipe for popovers was M. N. Henderson, Practical Cooking, 1876.[5] The first book other than a cookbook to mention popovers was Jesuit’s Ring by A. A. Hayes published in 1892.
In American Food (1974), author Evan Jones writes: “Settlers from Maine who founded Portland, Oregon Americanized the pudding from Yorkshire by cooking the batter in custard cups lubricated with drippings from the roasting beef (or sometimes pork); another modification was the use of garlic, and, frequently, herbs. The result is called Portland popover pudding: individual balloons of crusty meat-flavoured pastry.”
Other American popover variations include replacing some of the flour with pumpkin purée and adding spices such as allspice or nutmeg. Most American popovers today, however, are not flavoured with meat or herbs. Instead, they have a buttery taste.

Comments

Oh my! I live in a hot country but I was born and raised in a cold country (North West England). Your recipes,sing to of my childhood, they bring back so many memories, both taste and experience. I learned to make Yorkshire pudding when I was very young ( by my mother) and learned to perfect it in the kitchen of a wonderful woman who looked after me when my mum had to work. Wonderful times and maybe the beginning of my lifelong love of food and cooking. My favourite was lemon and sugar mainly because we didn’t have anything else!

Ahh, you guessed our master plan – the secret is out!!! Thanks for joining in and helping us advance through the serried ranks of blogs

Just adore these popovers Karen, especially now I know what they are. My mother had a friend who did the most amazing High Teas when I was young and she always served up Yorkshire puds to have with jam and clotted cream – I thought it was a Devon thing. Those perles to prune sound fantastic too and I WANT some.

I did indeed suss out your master plan Choclette! And what a GREAT idea it was too!
Thanks for your very kind comments, and do pop over to Jennifer’s site and maybe mention that you might like to review some cake forks!

oh my word I think my head may explode from fabulousness!… prunes in chocolate, yorkshire puddings, gorgeous cutlery, i don’t know where to look… love this idea so much… we often had yorkshire with jam when we visited our grandma up in Hull but never down in london… i’ve never officially eaten a popover though so I am keen to try these just to have an excuse to say i’ve made them… they look so adorable, thank you so much for the brilliant entry! xxx

I’ve never heard of Popovers before but what a brilliant name for a brilliantly scrumptious sounding dessert! There’s a new supper club in South London that have been creating lots of savoury-desserts a little like these Yorkshire puddings as puds!

Oh scrummy! Jonny makes the best yorkies when he does a roast and he always makes a few too many to have with sugar & lemon the next day like little puffy pancakes! bet the oozy, boozy fruit worked a treat
Janie x

I can’t believe I’ve actually not heard of Popovers so was very intrigued to read all about them! Lovely idea, and I’m sure these would be extremely popular with the monsters. I used to adore any leftovers of yorkshire pud with golden syrup, apart the times my Mum decided to scupper my plans by throwing loads of fresh herbs in the batter!

I have to confess: I have a popover pan that I’ve never used. However, I’ve also never thought about using popovers for a sweet concoction like this, which is a really cool idea. Maybe I’ll have to break it out now…

We had them every Sunday and Monday as kids, depending on how many were left over from Sunday’s roast dinner for six of us. My mum always made loads. She is a North Yorkshire lass, Old Goole, and her Yorkshire Puds were a bit like mini cakes anyway.
She made her own jam so we would have that and when we were older it was Golden Syrup…such a luxury then.

Meet Karen

Bienvenue! I'm Karen; it’s lovely to see you here. I share my time between beautiful North Yorkshire and SW France. I am a freelance writer and recipe developer with a passion for art, travel, books, photography, seasonal food and especially cheese! Please do get in contact with me if you have any questions about my work or commissioning me. Read More…